A 850 without air bags?

[Sommerfeldt]

The reason why Volvo did not have passenger side airbag as standard equipment in the Nordic markets was that we use rear-facing Child seats up to the age of 4-5 years. And many parents prefer to have the child in the front seat while driving. As a result, infant fatalties is almost none existent in scandinavia. A on/ off function is of course the best optiont. However, wearing the seatbelt, it is the driver side airbag, preventing impacting the steering wheel that improves safety substantially. Passenger side only by a few percent.

Exactly and impeccably on the money. Couldn't have said it better in any way.

- S

[kaneelschep]

Very true indeed! From Holland I remember the same.
In my parents '94 vw passat we did have a passenger airbag. Combined with climate control this meant no dashboard glove compartment. Wich was very annoying. Since I liked the car so much i planned on buying one myself, I roadtested a lot of those cars. And mostly all of those did not have the airbag on the passenger side.
It was an option you could choose for, the reason explained by LOB. So people often chose not to have it. Maybe for some the glove compartment was an important reason too.
Airbags save you mostly from hitting the steering wheel anyway.

We take those things for granted now. But do remember that America was one of the last countries to implement simple lifesaving things like ABS into their cars. Wich was allready standard on my Mercedes in '82 and option on mostly all european and asian cars from the end of the eightees.
Also crash helmets and seatbelts are still not a first offense in 1/3 of all states.
Here the ticket for no seat belt is always 160 euro. 200 dollar. And not wearing a helmet is just unheard of..

[jantt]

I have a 850 GLT 1992 and no airbags at all.

[Teddy1975]

My 1992 740 didn't have ABS either. However in Denmark it was due to the taxation of the cars, everything that added to the value was taxed by 180%. It's only fairly recently that safety equipment was exempt from taxation.

[LOB]

I have a 850 GLT 1992 and no airbags at all.

Airbag was standard equipment but could be opted out for whatever reason eg. Danish (stupid) taxation.

[LOB]

My 1992 740 didn't have ABS either. However in Denmark it was due to the taxation of the cars, everything that added to the value was taxed by 180%. It's only fairly recently that safety equipment was exempt from taxation.

And what abot catalytic converter before it became mandatory 1988? Extra fees as well? danish taxation on cars can only be matched by norwegian, my 855 GLT LPT would have been around 60 000 USD back in 1996.

[Clemens]

My friend´s dad bought an Audi 100 back in 1992. Airbags would have been included in the base model he got, but he chose an Airbag deleter option to have AC and 4 power windows and something else I can´t remember for free.

So who knows what the guy in Dubai traded his Airbags for